I’m fairly certain Barack Obama has known a little bit about the online poker “situation” for a while … at least since the White House released its Strategy to Protect Online Consumers and Support Innovation and National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace on April 15, 2011.

And you gotta think Obama probably got briefed as the DOJ officially changed its position on the Wire Act, September 23rd — the first day of Fall, and the same day the DOJ labeled Full Tilt Poker a Ponzi scheme and took all of Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, and Rafe Furst’s money. But why then did the ever-PR-conscious DOJ wait some 60 business days later until December 23rd — the quietest media day of the year — before telling the rest of America about the Executive Branch’s significant change of digital heart?

I suppose it might not even matter at this point; SOPA and PIPA have been tabled for now, Megaupload has been slapped hard with the same government quarantine the Feds beta-tested on online poker sites, and Kim Dotcom is in jail awaiting a fate that Full Tilt and PokerStars lawyers say he coulda avoided simply by changing his name to Kim Dotnet!

OK, maybe I get a little factually carried away sometimes jest … but John Pappas has a serious message for the President — essentially a 22-second synopsis of all those emails and tweets from the Poker Player Alliance’s 1.2 million members, and a plea for “common sense public policy” on the eve of what could be Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address.

I have great news to share with everyone. There will be TWO hearings on the online poker issue this week!

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee is holding a hearing to examine the impact of Internet gaming regulation on Indian tribes on Thursday, November 17th at 2:15 PM ET. PPA Chairman former Sen. D’Amato will testify for PPA, to be accompanied by Executive Director John Pappas.

The Senate committee hearing is excellent news for the poker community, as this is not the type of hearing where the poker community would necessarily expect to be invited to provide testimony. The invitation was due both to Sen. D’Amato’s esteemed background and to the activism of all of us in the poker community. Getting a hearing scheduled prior to the Thanksgiving recess was an accomplishment as well. For more, please click here to read PPA’s statement on the issue of tribal online poker, and please click here for details on this important hearing.

Additionally, the U.S. House Subcommittee for Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade will hold another hearing on Internet gaming on Friday, November 18th at 9 AM ET. Please click here for more on this important hearing, and please click here to read PPA’s memo to the subcommittee regarding bot detection technology, how sites handle Internet service disruptions, and discussion of other issues important to the poker community.

These hearings are hard evidence of the great work the poker community has been doing to ensure lawmakers hear from us. I thank everyone for taking the steps necessary to ensure our elected representatives understand that we poker enthusiasts will not back down and will not simply go away!

Thank you again for your continued support!

As you know, the House Subcommittee for Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade held a hearing [yesterday] examining the potential regulation of Internet gambling.  The hearing entitled, “Internet Gambling: Is There a Safe Bet?” called upon a variety of witnesses to discuss how best Internet gambling can be regulated in the U.S.  Among the witnesses was Poker Player Alliance Chairman and former Senator, Alfonse D’Amato.  A complete list of witnesses and their full testimonies is available here. You can also watch the full 2 ½ hour Committee hearing on CSPAN.com here.

Meeting with members before and after the hearing, I was immensely proud to hear every lawmaker tell us that they are being contacted by poker players. The question on the lawmakers’ minds was not “if” internet poker should be regulated, but rather “how” regulation should look.

Senator D’Amato did an exceptional job and delivered impassioned remarks defending your right to play.  He urged Congress to adopt rules and regulations to ensure American consumers have a safe marketplace in which to play poker on the Internet.  In fact, when it came to consumer protections the conclusion of every witness before the Committee was that regulation was far better than the status quo.  And, more importantly, that sentiment was also expressed almost unanimously by the lawmakers who attended the hearing.  The question on the lawmakers’ minds was not “if” internet poker should be regulated, but rather “how” should regulation look.

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The big news this week is PPA’s meeting with the Department of Justice regarding player funds locked up on Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker, and Ultimate Bet. Needless to say, this is at the forefront of the concerns of the membership and of the PPA, so I am pleased to report that your PPA has been proactive in pushing for restitution for our members.

From Executive Director John Pappas:

“We still have an open dialogue with [the DOJ] and look forward to more productive conversations down the road. We plan to follow up to make sure the DOJ gets a guarantee that players get restitution through any deal with new Full Tilt management.”

For more on this important story, please check out Poker Players Alliance Meets with DOJ Regarding Full Tilt Poker Player Funds -  Poker News (October 7, 2011).

In other news …

The World Series of Panel-discussions continues with what I like to think of as a circuit event on Wednesday. The Focus group has invited me and three others for a moderated roundtable that you could call Meet the Poker if David Gregory’s show were relegated to ESPN3.

But it should make for vigorous discourse providing valuable information … kinda like a think-tank for couch-based researchers and analysts. Details on the academic equivalent to a call-in show:

Toll-free Dial-In Number: (866) 951-1151

International Dial-In Number: (201) 590-2255

United Kingdom +44 08003581576

Conference # : 4999006

Join us for this roundtable teleconference on Wednesday May 18, 2011 at 10:00am PT/1:00pm ET to learn more about the economics of the multi-billion online gambling market and recent US government gaming legislation.

Topics include:

1. The history of today’s online gaming market
2. How Las Vegas feels about online gaming
3. “Black Friday” and its meaning for the online gaming business
4. What the online gaming business will look like in 2012

Moderator:

Michael Damphousse, CEO/CMO, Green Leads

Panelists:

David G. Schwartz, Director of Center for Gambling Research-UNLV
Dan Michalski, Founder/Editor, Pokerati.com
John Pappas, Executive Director, PPA (Poker Players Alliance)
Greg Raymer, 2004 WSOP Champion and Lawyer

Poker players (who tend to bitch the most?) love to hate on the Poker Players Alliance, the most vocal of DC advocacy groups for poker-related matters, and, obv disclosure, an advertiser of ours here at Pokerati. Discern for yourself my own possible bias, but they are merely a small player in the DC poli-poker game. The AGA, for example, also wants to see legalized online poker (and other casino games) … but they are not voicing any protest.

Strategic decisions notwithstanding, the PPA sees the federal indictment of close associates to some of their board members as an attack on poker, and are positioning themselves as a rebel poker alliance.

That’s my take, not theirs, on the video statement put out by their Executive Director John Pappas. And below is additional statement from the PPA that many players have been clamoring for.

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Only two states in the US have no legal gambling — Hawaii and Utah. Could be just one soon, say supporters and opponents alike of a bill in Hawaii that would specifically legalize Texas Hold’em and Omaha poker, live and online.

The bill, which passed out of committee yesterday, looks to make Hawaii a destination for big-time live (and televised) poker events … as well as a potential home base for online sites serving US players … by designating the foundations of Pokerati NLH/PLO as games of skill, not played against a casino “house” and therefore exempt from state gambling prohibitions.

PPA Exec Dir. John Pappas supplied written testimony for the hearing, suggesting that the way this current bill is crafted could be problematically prohibitive, as it seeks to charge $100 million for a server license and impose a 20 percent tax on all wagers while potentially challenging federal law. Pappas, however, did not provide any statement on the economic impact such a law would have on Waikiki vendors selling T-shirts like these:

Surf’s Up by Pokerati Generic T-Shirt Shoppe

The Hawaii poker bill — originally written supposedly to provide a tax holiday for buying school supplies — passed out of the Economic Revitalization & Business Committee on a 7-1 vote, and the House Judiciary Committee, 9-3. It now moves on to the House Finance Committee.

(Mahalo Poker Gnome for the heads-up.)

The PPA flew cross country from DC->Olympia earlier this week so they could rendezvous today with Andy Bloch+Linda Johnson+Jan Fisher and 20 online poker players.

No, it’s not part of the plot line to a poker-politico version of “Almost Famous”.

Unlike the lobbyist-types communing in various state capitals for the purposes of *passing* online gaming legislation, this party is roadtripping to *repeal* the online gambling ban in Washington State.

Read about it via the following presser from PPA (but lol at the word “draconian”):

Poker Players Alliance Members Meet with Washington Lawmakers
Hope to Gain Support for Overturning State Ban on Online Poker

Olympia, WA (March 17, 2011) – Members of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) from across the state of Washington are spending the day in Olympia today to ask their state lawmakers to overturn the draconian state law that makes Washingtonians felons for enjoying a hand of poker on their home computers. The PPA, the leading poker grassroots advocacy group with more than one million members nationwide and more than 20,000 in Washington State, has been leading the efforts in the state to protect players from potential criminalization and provide them with a safe, regulated, national environment in which to play online poker.

“Washington is the only state that makes it not only a crime, but a felony on par with child pornography, for its own citizens to play poker at their home computer. Surely, lawmakers in the state can recognize that penalizing their constituents for opting to enjoy a hand of poker on the computer versus at the casino down the street is not only illogical but ineffective,” said John Pappas, executive director of the PPA. “Our goal with this lobby day is to raise awareness of the incongruity of this law and identify alternatives for legislators to support that will remove this criminalization while providing a safe and regulated online poker market.”

Joining more than 20 Washingtonians in Olympia are three renowned professional poker players – Andy Bloch, Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher. The group of players will meet with at least 45 state legislators to discuss the impact of the state ban and how overturning the ban and supporting federal and perhaps even state regulation of online poker would result in consumer protections for players and millions of dollars in much needed state revenue.

The state law, passed in 2006 and recently upheld by the State Supreme Court, makes it a class “C” felony for an individual to play poker online from their home computer punishable by a $10,000 fine and/or five years in prison. A 2010 poll of Washington State voters found that an overwhelming 80 percent of them disagree with this law, and over half believe online poker should be licensed, regulated and taxed.

“We have the support of the public for overturning this ban. We have the support of the players. We hope that after today, we will have the support of state lawmakers as well and can begin the process of removing the criminalization of the individual players and establishing a safe, regulated online poker market in Washington State,” continued Pappas.

If we believe that 50 years from now, poker and online poker will be part of our world, then what went down in December 2010 will be little more than a footnote in an effort that took maybe 5, maybe 10 years to get to the beginning stages of however the 2060 WSOP is run.

In fact, makes me wanna give an assignment to Las Vegas 1st graders and/or 2+2 — crayon drawings of how they see the 2060 WSOP.

Anyhow, though I still think we (as in “poker”) technically may have one out left, all interested parties seem to be resigned to the notion that 2010 — for all the heartfelt ups and downs we experienced — is not the year for change poker players can believe in. Right now I think our best bet, with all the major-world issues being fought over in DC, would be for a staffer to trip while bringing a bill to Obama and letting a few sheets of paper slip in unnoticed for an accidental signing.

We’ll have to leave it to the mainstream pundits to determine why on earth this shoulda even been a problem when we ultimately brought $60 billion via decent policy to the table — and the people theoretically supporting it controlled all branches of government … one of them being one of the most powerful people in Washington DC. Something doesn’t seem to add up, and I suspect Harry Reid will have a lot of questions to answer but not really as a guy who secured his gig for 6 years. But in the meantime, the PPA, in just its fourth year of existence, has put out the statement below surrendering this round while assessing how to build off a year where they made more progress for poker than ever before seen on a federal level … bringing us closer to those kindergarten dreams of what 2060 could look like:

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DonkDown Radio:

This is the first time that I have actually listened to this show, due to me not being a fan of Podcast that extend past the 2 hour mark. After just listening to this episode it easily moves into the must listen weekly list. This week Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke comes in and the discussion goes from poker to Magic the Gathering. Kristy Arnett comes on next to discuss her recent mini-FTOPs win and is put on the spot with this weeks Dirty Half Dozen where things go from R rated to XXX rated. Check out the latest episode at the DonkDown site or subscribe and download it via iTunes.

Final Table Poker Radio:

The guys from St. Louis come back this week to further discuss the Reid bill with John Pappas of the PPA. John sounded a lot less hopeful that the bill will be passed before years end and gives some thoughts on where things go from here. The discussion does move off the Reid bill this week and goes into antes in cash games and the Bellagio heist. If you want to listen to the entire show or catch up on previous show you can either visit The Final Table site or check it out on iTunes.

3 Gentlemen:

Brian Hastings joins the 3 Gentlemen crew this week to discuss the love between him and Isildur. The guys also discuss their sports betting losses over the past week. These guys really like to talk their sports so if that is something that you really would like to listen to then check them out on Cardrunners or subscribe on iTunes.

PPA’s Executive Director John Pappas will be on Bloomberg TV this morning to “discuss licensing and regulating online poker” per @ppapoker morning tweet.

Will he give details on iPoker’s status on the Hill, or confirm/deny @ESPN_Poker‘s recent assertion that #reidbill is dead?

Watch it LIVE here @ 11:45am ET/8:45am LV -> http://www.bloomberg.com/tv/

Was just writing a post highlighting a few places to bookmark for the week, including:

• Part-time Poker’s “Regulation” page — seems to be a solid aggregator of relevant info
• The Twitter hashtag #ReidBill, which many close followers of gaming legislation are pushing, including Pokerati’s go-to @GamingCounsel Stu.
• And insight from “F Train” about the process of attaching one bill (say the Harry Reid poker bill) onto another (say the Bush Tax Cut extension bill)
• FTW? ftw!

ADDED:

• BJ’s Early Analysis — he puts up a post twice a quarter but gets linked up by writers for the New York Times.

Everyone seems to be on pins and needles waiting to hear something … when along comes word over the transom from our good-good friends at the PPA, giving the update on where things stand in the halls of a lame-duck Congress as per online poker.

In a nutshell: We’ve been working toward this for five years. Don’t let Harrah’s take all the credit. Hang tight. We’re Blackberrying our asses off trying to get this thing right. Stay tuned, quit yer bitchin’, things change. And, of course, don’t forget to spend whatever political capital you may have telling your Congresspeeps why online poker regulation is the most awesomest thing since America and freedom!

Meanwhile, I set up a specific Pokerati tag for “UIGEA Repeal” so you could follow the most timely best from all Pokerati’s well-informed contributors as they posted … but alas, have since discovered a rather key error in that, technically, this unofficial Harry Reid Poker Bill wouldn’t repeal the UIGEA, but rather would strengthen it … still hopefully to the poker world’s liking, obv.

UPDATE: Indeed, Al D’Amato and the PPA are calling on YOU to contact your US senators. Assuming you believe in the overall cause of guaranteeing American freedom and much needed tax revenue via proper regulation of online poker, as espoused by D’Amato in the email blast titled “Tell your Senators to Support iPoker Regulation TODAY!” … click here to give online-poker proponents some numbers to bargain with when negotiating with other special interests.

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The PPA speaks out on the South Carolina Supreme Court’s game-of-skill hearing, where they helped provide legal counsel for the five players contesting their misdemeanor illegal gambling convictions.

This case has nothing to do with casinos or video poker.  This case is about the freedom of adults to play a game of skill, like poker, in their own home and that is it.

- John Pappas, Poker Players Alliance

Fair enough. But it does stand to set precedent and interpretation that other states will at least look at upon (finally) recognizing their own old gambling laws may not really work in today’s day and age.

Sure, we all know that poker is a game of skill and therefore Truth is on poker’s side here, but that may not be the deciding factor when all is said and done. Likewise, the private residence argument could ring a bit hollow because we all know the difference between a self-dealt home game and a for-profit poker room.

But regardless, clarity in and of itself could be a worthy end-result, no? Is it legal to host a weekly sit-n-go and take a “rake” for pizza and beer? What about to pay for nice tables and utilities? Professional dealer maybe? Would it make a difference if you operated as a non-profit? And If an undercover cop wins the bad-beat jackpot, do they have make-up in their backing deal with taxpayers?

Obviously, the South Carolina Supreme Court won’t be making such scenario-specific determinations. However … assuming they don’t just kick it back like Kentucky and Washington did (saying essentially, “eh, not our call”) … this court is being asked to decide, ultimately, just how far the government’s reach extends when dealing with a game of skill played for money … and that’s a question powerful people are wrangling with in different jurisdictions all around the world.

If you haven’t already, help Pokerati determine where poker falls on the spectrum of luck vs. skill here, and read below for the PPA’s official take on today’s important poker activity in South Carolina:

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(WASHINGTON DC) Both the House and Senate reconvened yesterday on a crisp bright fallish day in the Beltway.  After a summertime recess spent allowing members to return to their home districts, it’s time for Reps and Senators to get back to doing all the things they do in the *public eye* — and that doesn’t mean just appearing on Jay Leno.  

This will be the first opportunity for HR 2267 to take those *many* next steps on the legislative grind  to Obama’s ”final table” since it passed through House Financial Services committee over six (!) weeks ago. It is also the last window for anything to happen before the November election; however, this window will close on October 8. That’s about 20 days from now, folks.

So what’s going to be happening, if anything?

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Amazing. Didn’t think it could be done. Yet the entities at Wicked Chops keep getting better and better at this whole video talk format, and if you look/listen closely you might start to believe that they’re actually not unintelligent, uninformed, uncouth sexist, racist wankers. Clearly WCP’s marketing department must be going ape-shit over this travesty and calling for someone’s firing if “the entities” are gonna go on-air every week and disgrace the Wicked Chops brand.

For those of you who didn’t see it — or get to watch in full — here’s an hour and 40minutes of the masters of poker low-brow taking on the headier issues of the poker day … with their special guests this week Annie Duke, John Pappas, and me … joining the crew for my first ever video Skype at 53:00 if you’re short on time and have to get right to the good stuff.

Also fans of @JessWelman will wanna be sure to check out the early part of the show, where she makes her debut appearance delivering news briefs and tackling matters of poker pop culture such as Beth Shak’s forthcoming season on Miliionaire Matchmaker.

* Seriously, not sure what I kept looking at way up in the sky. Video-chat clearly adds 10 pounds.